VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Health (MOH) says there is no correlation between cancer cases and the quality of water used by people in 10 villages. 

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Do Manh Cuong from MOH’s Environment Protection Agency on December 21 confirmed that MOH sent documents to local healthcare departments to provide infirmation about testing results and reassure people in the 10 villages.

Prior to that, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) announced the results of a survey on the 10 villages with seriously polluted water. 

Commenting about MONRE’s survey, Cuong said MONRE doesn’t have a medical function and it applied an unreasonable survey method.

MONRE took samples from surface water (river water) and underground water and declared that the running water of local people was seriously polluted, the reason behind the high percentage of cancer cases.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) says there is no correlation between cancer cases and the quality of water used by people in 10 villages. 
Meanwhile, locals don’t use river water, but instead tap water. “The survey’s results announced by MONRE have no scientific basis, which confused the public. It is necessary to establish a science council to clarify the issue,” he said.

According to MOH, cancer is caused by many factors, including diet, activities, lifestyle and environmental conditions. 

Soon after MONRE announced the survey results, MOH instructed its research institutes to carry out fact-finding trips at every household with members with cancer and take water samples for testing.

The testing showed that samples of running water all had organic content, plant protection chemicals and heavy metal residues within the permitted levels. 

What MOH found is quite different from what MONRE announced.

Regarding the number of cancer patients, Cuong said that figures found by MOH were not different from the statistics of the entire country.

There were 73-169 cancer cases for every 100,000 people in the villages, which was equal to the common rate in the whole country. 

The new cancer rate in Vietnam is 135/100,000 for women and 181.3/100,000 for men, which is lower than the average rate in the world (182/100,000).

The most commonly seen types of cancer are liver, lung, stomach, throat, tongue, uterus, blood and bone.

“The proportion of cancer cases in the villages is nearly the same with the average proportion in the country,” he said, adding that the word ‘cancer villages’ must not be used.

MONRE, when implementing the project on seeking safe water sources in the first phase in 2011-2015, found 37 ‘cancer villages’ in 22 provinces and cities. The common problem of the villages was the unsafe water.

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Mai Nam